Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 508 Have You Always Been Alone?
"Then come out." Ling Ge said standing at the door, and opened the half-closed wooden door. The bright sunlight outside suddenly poured into the house without any hindrance, illuminating the tiny dust particles floating in the air, just like plankton in a transparent ocean, drifting aimlessly.

The slightly dazzling light fell into the girl's blue eyes, causing her, who was used to the dim environment in the room, to squint a little uncomfortably and asked in confusion, "Go out?"

"Yeah." Linger nodded: "The weather is so nice, do you want to chat in the room?"

"But I can't leave here." Yieta shrank back into the soft and fluffy white feathers and said dejectedly, "Because of the curse."

Ling Ge said: "It should be okay at the door, right?"

"Well."

Yieta hesitated for a while, but finally chose to listen to Lingge's advice, slowly climbed down from the bed, found her precious pair of open-toed sandals, followed Lingge out of the room. This traditional Avion-style sandal is usually embedded with two wooden saw teeth on the heel to facilitate walking in fields and muddy ground, so it is quite heavy. The gentle footsteps fell on the stone floor, stepping out a crisp and pleasant echo, quite like spring water dripping on stalactites.

Linger walked all the way to the steps below before stopping, while Yieta stopped at the door. Standing here and looking into the distance, you can see a stretch of primrose fields, lush forests and fields in the distance, stone guards laying wooden boards on the road, and a corner of the hotel eaves vaguely showing through the lush and crowded branches and leaves. Yieta had heard the proprietress and bartender who often came here describe the appearance of the hotel, and she always yearned for it, but she couldn't visit it in person, which made her feel regretful.

The range of activities of this angel lady, who symbolizes freedom, is limited to this small windmill tower house.

The stone base was cleaned without any dust. Yieta gathered her skirt and sat down beside the old wooden door. She hugged her knees with both hands and stared blankly at the scene bathed in the warm sunlight. The chain on her ankle made a clattering sound when dragged. It was easy to untie, even without help from others. But the shackles in her heart and the shackles of curse often made her feel suffocated.

Ling also sat down on the steps. He leaned slightly and looked at Ieta who was gazing at the primrose field in a trance. In those eyes as clear and transparent as the sky, what was the angel of wind of Avignon village thinking?

Seven centuries ago, primroses spread wildly in the fields of Saizeriya, and were praised by the poet Hyde in his collection of poems "Ode to Falling Cherry Blossoms" as "a miracle of seven colors"; seven centuries later, the man who created this miracle has long left his beloved homeland and embarked on a journey from which he could not see the way back. Those colorful primroses are still flying and spinning in her eyes, but do they still carry the warm and fascinating fragrance of the past era? In the smoke from every household, in the scorching sun where farmers work hard, in the slowly turning wings of the white windmill... Did she see the scene of that era again and recall her feelings at that time?

People always fall into nostalgia for the past at some point. Memories are fragments that can only be pieced together to form a complete image. The more you forget, the less you remember. But some things are like being engraved in the soul and can never be forgotten. It seems that Yieta has also reached this stage. For a person who is determined to move forward, it is particularly important to look back on the road she has come from from time to time. Therefore, Lingge did not disturb her and quietly waited for her to break free from her memories.

About half a minute later, Yieta came back to her senses and slowly retracted her gaze. She rested her chin on her knees and stared at Lingge: "So, what do you want to talk about?"

This is indeed a very important question. Ling Ge certainly couldn't just say that he was here to comfort her, so he thought about it and decided to start with an idea that had popped up in his mind before. He just wanted to treat it as a casual chat to distract her attention and stop her from always thinking about those sad things.

"Have you seen other feather elves, Yieta?"

Ling Ge said, "I heard that feather elves are rarely seen on the continent now." Yieta was stunned for a moment, then shook her head blankly: "No, I have never seen other members of the tribe."

In fact, she had asked Olvera the same question that night, and asked her to use the power of the [Book of Truth] to find the answer, but unfortunately, all she found were some specious historical materials. Not to mention how credible they were, the amount of text was so huge that it was unimaginable. It was obviously a fantasy to want to find the whereabouts of a race that had disappeared from them. So, Yieta gave up the idea in this regard, and later gradually forgot about it.

Now, Ling'er's question made her recall the scene at that time again.

Lingge was not surprised to hear her answer. He nodded slightly and asked, "Then, how did you come to the human world? Have you never seen your own people since you became conscious?
"It seems... like this." Yieta rested her head on her knees, and while recalling her past experiences, she murmured, "I was not born into a feather elf family, and I have never seen my parents. In fact, when I realized that I was living in this world, I was already like this. The first memory that came to my mind was that I was standing on a gray cliff near the ocean, looking at the distant horizon. Apart from that, I don't remember any earlier images. Maybe they don't exist?"

The more she spoke, the lower her voice became, until it disappeared completely.

The girl was feeling depressed as she recalled her vague past, but Linger came to chat with her to comfort her, not to make her feel worse. So, before Yieta's mood hit the bottom, he spoke to distract her: "What happened next?"

"What happened next?" Yieta was indeed fooled. She didn't care about being sad, but continued to recall the rest of the story: "Afterwards, I walked along the sea. I didn't know who I was, where I came from, or where I was going. So, I wanted to find someone who knew the answer to tell me, maybe my family, or other feather elves... Anyway, I didn't want to stay on that cliff alone and die alone, so I embarked on a journey."

"I kept walking forward, and encountered many creatures: seagulls and swallows flying in the sky, crabs and shells on the beach, sharks and jellyfish in the ocean, and some people living by the sea. Some of them were very friendly, and some were very vicious. When I met friendly ones, I would go over to ask for directions and exchange food with coins and shells I picked up on the beach; when I met vicious ones, I would avoid them and not deal with them. But because of the curse, disasters would happen wherever I went, so I couldn't stay in any place for long. I always came alone, left alone, wandered alone, and traveled alone..."

Although in fact, for this girl, wandering and traveling actually mean the same thing.

She is a lonely wandering soul in the world. She is lonely in terms of her life state. It is impossible for anyone to travel with her, let alone understand the melancholy and sorrow in her heart. She is also lonely in terms of the survival of her race, because no matter where she goes, she cannot find other feather elves. It seems that her tribesmen have disappeared and flown to a place farther than the sky, making it difficult for her to reach them.

Linger listened silently, and at this moment he didn't know how to start talking. Although he was the one who brought up the topic, his ability to speak was very limited at this moment. If he hadn't experienced the same thing before and hadn't had emotional resonance, he wouldn't be able to say something that could comfort the girl. This wasn't Linger's flaw, to be exact, it should be the flaw of all living beings.

"Ah, right!"

At this moment, Yieta seemed to have finally remembered a happy memory, and her tone of voice rose inadvertently, just like a gentle and sad violin piece that suddenly raised a pitch. She lowered her head and looked at Lingge with sparkling eyes: "I also met a group of whales!"

"A group of very big whales!"

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)